A collection of questions.

[Battle_Korbi]

Okay, I would usually experiment with these but I am loaded with work nowadays and my free time is super limited. I mean, I would really like to try these out, but I guess asking you guys would suffice.

1.Monster noticing range.
Can the monsters notice you right away when really far away (like a world away, or in this case, a kilometer or so, I am not talking 30 meters or anything), and pointed to you? Is there a range to their perception? Or is it infinite?

2.Monster pathfinding.
If I put a division of monsters on one end of the map, and build a linear maze (that just branches around all the way till the arena the player is in, to have 20 enterances or so), would the monsters get stuck, or lose interest half the way, or would they track you till the end of the world?

3. Holding a point.
I find the run-and-gun playstyle a bit bland. Would people like to have to hold a point on a map (that has some goodies in it) during their playthroughs?

4. Switches that appear after killing a majority or all monsters.
I have seen in some wads that after killing most of the monsters, a switch rises up from the floor or descends from the ceiling or shows up in the wall. Which functions achieves this, or is it some linedef crossing trick?

5. Given flat terraine, but set in a complicated maze with dead ends and occasional blockades, would a whole goddamn legion of monsters be able to pinpoint a player's position, even if only one dude would make it to him?

I think you can see where am I going with this. If so, any extra tip would work as well ;)

[Grain of Salt]

Battle_Kirby said:

1.Monster noticing range.
Can the monsters notice you right away when really far away (like a world away, or in this case, a kilometer or so, I am not talking 30 meters or anything), and pointed to you? Is there a range to their perception? Or is it infinite?

In my experience, there is no limit to the distance at which monster can see you. Maybe someone else can give a more technical answer to this, though.

2.Monster pathfinding.
If I put a division of monsters on one end of the map, and build a linear maze (that just branches around all the way till the arena the player is in, to have 20 enterances or so), would the monsters get stuck, or lose interest half the way, or would they track you till the end of the world?

It's hard to see what this question means, but... All monsters do is move towards their target, with a little randomisation. They can't solve mazes unless the maze can solved by moving towards their target, and they can't lose interest unless they start infighting.

3. Holding a point.
I find the run-and-gun playstyle a bit bland. Would people like to have to hold a point on a map (that has some goodies in it) during their playthroughs?

Personally I only like defending a location if its something that comes up naturally, with no scripting etc.

4. Switches that appear after killing a majority or all monsters.
I have seen in some wads that after killing most of the monsters, a switch rises up from the floor or descends from the ceiling or shows up in the wall. Which functions achieves this, or is it some linedef crossing trick?

Which wad specifically are you thinking of? In vanilla, this is presumably either tag 666 or a dehacked trick. Outside of vanilla there are many ways of doing this.

5. Given flat terraine, but set in a complicated maze with dead ends and occasional blockades, would a whole goddamn legion of monsters be able to pinpoint a player's position, even if only one dude would make it to him?

See my answer to 2, basically. Monsters can't solve mazes. If it helps, monsters do always know where their target is.

[scifista42]

1. Infinite.
2. There is no pathfinding in Doom, monsters just basically walk roughly into the direction where their target is, and upon bumping into obstacles, they just change direction to whichever one that is unobstructed.
3. I don't see anything bad about it out of principle.
4. Either this was just a timed event unaffected by killing any monsters, or an ACS scripted event in ZDoom compatible maps, or maybe one of these hacks.
5. Certain kinds of terrain could make monsters unable or almost-unable to get past it until their target fittingly changes its relative position to them. See answer #2.